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Two metal cans, cleaned and ready to be recycled

Metal Cans

Tin cans - tins of baked beans, spaghetti, tomato sauce, fruit salad, pet food and paint

Did you know ...

  • Recycling tin cans saves between 60 to 74 percent of the energy used to produce them from raw materials.
  • Metals can be classified into two groups - ferrous and non-ferrous.  Ferrous metals contain iron and non-ferrous do not.  Ferrous metals may be pure iron, or they maybe an alloy such as steel (made from iron and carbon).  Common non-ferrous metals are aluminium, tin, copper, zinc and brass.  High value metals such as silver, gold and platinum are often contained in printed circuit boards of electrical equipment.

See Also  Aerosol Cans  |  Aluminium Cans  |  Paints

Reduce

There are alternatives to using tin cans:

  • Growing your own fruit and vegetables or buying fresh from farmers market or the supermarket
  • Buy dry vegetables such as beans and peas that don't come in cans
  • Preserve your fresh vegetables for the winter months. And the preserving jars can be reused each year. 

Reuse

Here are a few suggestions on what else you can do with your tin cans:

  • Tin cans make excellent storage containers for pens/pencils
  • A neat craft idea is to glue ice block sticks around the can and paint the sticks to make a decorative storage container

 

Recycle

You can recycle tin cans.

How do I recycle it?
  • Empty
  • Clean and dry
  • Loose tabs, laminated foil, metal lids, tubes to be removed and placed in landfill bin.

 

Where do I recycle it?
  • Local recycling service
  • Recycle drop off centre - in the bin labelled tin/steel cans